Saturday, June 30, 2012

Good Saturday friends & neighbors!This Monday, July 2nd at 7pm the Tropical Ridge Neighborhood
Association will hold its monthly meeting at Compass. On the agenda will
be final discussions on the July 4th Raft Race, a vote for the two
Board of Director positions (nominees are Carolyn Deli & Phil
Materio) and the collection of annual dues ($15 per person).We look forward to seeing everyone there.

Friday, June 29, 2012

Great story about another successful NSP2 home dedication - this time to a veteran and single father. Congrats to the Lake Worth CRA and everyone who is making these miracles possible. Don't miss the video - click on the link.

"Both
abundance and lack exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel
realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will
tend...when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives
but are grateful for the abundance that's present - love, health,
family, friends, work, the joys of nature, and personal pursuits that
bring us pleasure - the wasteland of illusion falls away and we
experience heaven on earth."

Please take note of the Genesis and Bryant Park Neighborhood Association 2012
Summer Olympics Games July 29, 2012 at Memorial Park starting at 11am.
It will be an all day event with games for children, face painting,
food vendors selling tacos, pupusas, fresh fruit, natural fruit shakes,
etc. Please assist me in getting the word out for what we hope to be a
fun event for our neighborhoods to interact as a community. We hope to
inform our neighbors who aren't aware and already involved in their
local neighborhood associations that they are missing out on a lot of
fun and good works toward improving our surroundings. No better time
than now to get involved and become part of the solution oriented
organizations that are our active neighborhood associations. Happy 4th
of July to everyone and beware I here the Commission's Raft "Pirates of
Penzance" will be taking no prisoners.

Project
bids were opened on March 20 and a contractor was selected for the job.
The project contract goes before the PBC Board of County Commissioners
for approval on June 19,
and construction is expected to begin in early July. The project should
take approximately one year to complete. Click here for graphic.

Monday, June 25, 2012

I forwarded a copy and asked if he had seen it. This was his response:

No, you must be kidding me! Almost nothing in the images would be allowed under either the current code or the revised Land Development Regulations even with the additional proposed height east of Federal Highway. I don’t even know where to begin with this one. Thanks for the head’s up.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Beware! They are here and real...listen to people knocking at your door. They are coming on Greyhound buses from Maine. Their sole intent is to build 65 foot buildings - EVERYWHERE IN THE CITY OF LAKE WORTH. Click title for link.

Commissioner Mulvehill reaches for this source in response to a question on whether residential land contributes more revenue or takes more revenue from a community's tax base. The Commissioner responds thusly:

This morning it was asked of me if the new residental development will cost the tax payers more money. The answer - is yes. In the attached Cost of Community Services study you will see a graph that shows that for every dollar raised in taxes, it will cost $1.15 to provide the services. uses.

Well, o.k. - Suzanne can read a chart. But, what she seems not to be able to read is that the document's source is the American Farmland Trust - Farmland Information Center. The article that said "graph" deals with concerns rural and suburban communities facing growth pressures. The comparison is made between commercial /industrial land and "working and open" land - it is not set in an urban context which is what Lake Worth is - not fallow land under pressure of subdivision for single family housing.

I am sure that the Commissioner and her "team" will continue to use misleading and irrelevant material to bolster other spurious claims. There should be a law against cluelessness. Can we put that on the ballot?

Commissioner Suzanne Mulvehill is using FaceBook to promulgate misinformation such as the following statement and example. This was in response to a resident who questioned the ability of someone to assemble smaller parcels of land that would be necessary to bring about the unattainable example that is being shown around town by the Respectful Planning PAC. Apparently, this group does not respect the truth.

"Here's an example of a project where they were putting parcels together in the historic Bryant Park Neighborhood Association in 2006 to build 60 foot buildings from Lakeside Drive to Palmway on 3rd Avenue South running up several parcels. They were going to buy the parcels from the residents. You said that it can't be done - this shows it can be done. built." Commissioner Suzanne Mulvehill, June 23, 2012

I happened to be chairman of the Planning, Zoning and Historic Resource Preservation Board at the time that this project appeared before us. In the article, it references how the board DENIED a request to abandon an alley in July of 2006. You can find the minutes of the meeting here. It was one of the few times that I came late to a meeting due to another professional commitment, but you can see the detail of the board's action in the minutes - along with hearing what was said by those in the neighborhood about the project. The abandonment of the alley was a required precedent to the original unacceptable design of the project. The project returned again in September (subject of the article) - I am unable to find the minutes of this meeting on the city's website, which unfortunately is not unusual. The developer came back with a proposal to have a "catwalk" over the alley (to link two buildings) that was the subject of the previously denied abandonment request. I remember the board, in response to neighborhood concerns as well as possible precedent setting an "alley crossover" - turned the project around again and sent it back for revisions. It was never approved and it was never built. And, for what it is worth, the proposal was for a multi-family residential mix of three to five story buildings - not a monolithic 60 foot high building as depicted by the deceptive graphic being produced and distributed by our Commissioner Suzanne Mulvehill.

What actually happened is an example of the complexities of land assembly - there were parcels where owners were not willing to sell which contributed to the odd, unworkable design of the project. It is also an example of a process where the private sector presented an application to change the built environment on a series of properties - which in the United States we are allowed to do. Lake Worth is part of the United States of America. There are people, however, that would like to deny the right of people to even apply for a change in the character of a property - see "champion tree" property. Furthermore, it is an example of the interactive dialog that takes place between a developer, the public and the board appointed to protect the interests of the community. Here it worked - this poorly designed and assembled project did not pass the test. It died a quiet death - and without having the city being sued.

You will not hear the real story from Commissioner Mulvehill and her disciples - since this referendum is about dividing and scaring the public and giving her a position to grandstand during her upcoming re-election campaign. If the referendum as written went into effect, the only likely difference would be that the 5 story portion would be limited to 4 stories - and one would think that the developer's incentive to have a 3 story portion may be less. We would likely end up with a four story monolith. A vast improvement? No.